Farewell to an Old Friend

No regrets.

Join me in saying farewell to the Volvo. We had it four years and it served us well. A couple of weeks ago I was working on the front suspension and it whispered to me that I shouldn’t take any more long trips; it was about ready to die. Today I headed out to Bricktown to walk along the River Trails and I got a notice on the dash that the transmission was very unhappy. It drove oddly and was stuck in third gear (out of four). After my walk, it began at least downshifting, but would not come up above third. So I did some research; at a minimum the transmission sensor had failed and it was more than I wanted to pay to fix it. It would have been pretty hard to get to, as well. Worse, it could have been the transmission was about gone. That would cost more than the car was worth.

So I drove it to the salvage place and they made me a decent offer, since it had never been wrecked. We do still have my wife’s car, so it’s not a disaster. Back to the bike for me.

There’s a lesson here about the Fallacy of Sunk Costs. The new parts I just put on should be viewed as cost of operations. In our religion, it’s the cost of obeying the Lord and taking care of His gifts. Fixing it and keeping it up to date was the right thing to do until the car was gone. Now it’s gone.

God bless you all.